Heating furnace



Jan. 31, 1933. J w, OFFUTT Y 1,895,726

HEATING FURNACE Filed Aug. 12, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 JOHN Orf-U77,

i JOHN W. orrnfr'r, for EL Y tionV of the pusher ram.

Patented Jan. 31, 1933 y y UNITE'DfS'TATEs COMPANY, AOORPOBATION OF New JERSEY;

HEATING PURNAOn Application '1ed"Augus`t`12, 1931. Serial 1\To.'556,6"86.4

This invention relates to billet heating naces 'and'more'parti'cularly to furnaces designed to especially handle round billets in a continuous manner.

Heretofore7 in the heating of round billets it has been necessary to roll down the billets from one end of the furnace at which they were charged, all the way along tothe point of discharge, such rolling down requiring considerable labor and being a hotand disagreeable task.

lhen attempts have been made to push round billets through a furnace, difficulties have arisen in that the rows of billets would buckie and gorge, thereby making it impossible to obtain a uniform heating in their passage through the furnace.

in accordance with the present invention it is proposed to provide a furnace in which the round billets may be pushed along the hearth in an axial direction on inclined skids and at the same time billets may be disposed transversely of the billets that are pushed, thus constituting the pushed billets a conveying means for the transversely disposed billets. By this method of feeding billets through a heating furnace, the. billets are uniformly heated without interruption and without the difculties heretofore encountered.

The invention will become more apparent from a consideration of the accompanying drawings in which like reference characters designate like parts and in whichp Figure l is a vertical cross-sectional view taken longitudinally of a'billet heating furnace embodying the principles of this invention.

Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line II-II of Figure l.

Figure 3 is a top plan view of the furnace and pusher mechanism with the roof cut away. v

Figure 4 is a sectional 4elevation taken of a detail of the skid on which the billets'are pushed through Vthe furnace.

Figure 5 is a cross-sectional view of a por- With reference to the several figures Of the drawings, the structure therein illustrated PATENT 'oirrlcei'*'` WOOD CITY, PENNSYLVANIA, AssIGNOnA To. 'NATIONAL comprises a furnace, the heating vchamber of which is constituted by an inclined hearthrQ, a roof 3 `and side walls V4, having a fire-box 5 adjacent the front end of the inclinedihearth' and a charging opening 6 at the-Other end, thel side walls lbeing odset at the charging end to constitutela pair off side iiuesi?.` A

chargingrtable is provided Vat Vthe charging end on which the'billets .tobe charged may. be supported.;- Discharge openingsS are provided to which. the billets are rolled ,down and discharged from the furnace, 1 and the hearth structure is supportedy onalplurality: ofpillars 9. As shown 'in F igureQ the :hearth is provided with a plurality of skidsllO, there being twov pairs of said skidsV in spaced relation each of which'supports a roudbillet 1l, and each pair-of round billets lying in the trough of the skids, in'turn, supporting a series of round billets disposed in transverse relation to the skids. y; The skids are ,con-y structed as shown in Figure l and comprise aplurality of relative short castings ,of YheatV resistingalloy inend-to-end `fashion to p're-y charge openingsfS are preferably plain with the groove leliminated to facilitate '.116- moval ofi the round billets by hooks atthe dischargeend' of the furnace. "Thebillets are conveyed through the furnace by rams l5 which are shown in Figure l and Figure 5 Y of the drawings;

The rams 15 each have a 4.tooth racklj' which racks are .operated by pinions 17 earried by a lshaftrl'?a operated through a gear reduction unit 18gconnected to af reversing motor 19. `The construction ofthe racksfis shown 'in detailV in Figure 5 in whichjgthe racks Vare shown asattached to therarns 15 overwhichcover-plates 21am placed to form a Icontinuous topfor the charging 1table 20.

In the operation of the billet :heating furnace, billets are placed longitudinally of; the furnace in lthelgrooves 112 of the .castings -10 and other Vround billetsl are placed transf versely of the longitudinally disposedA billets, and the Ypusher rams are operated to engage the ends of the billets in the grooves 12 so vas to push said'billets. lAs the billets in the grooves l2 are pushed into the furnace" they willi carrythe other `billets arranged transversely thereof into the'furnac'e. When the rams are returned ther upper portionof the skid trackis' again loaded with' billetsfand the operation of pushing the billets Vinto the furnace is repeated. The. billets are Vdischarged through the openings 8 in the'cus-y tomary manner, that is, by rollingeach billet over on the hearth ofthe furnaceV to 'insure uniform heating before they aredischargedr foruse. Y

` .On account of the longitudinally-disposed billetsfmaking contact withthecooled 'caste 2O ings r10, itmay be desiredto yb ringthemnp f to the proper temperature before discharging them, and' for this purposetheyfmay be placed lto one side untilk they havereached the propertemperaturegf However, the trans' verselyarrangedbillets, dueto their bein-gv s aced from the-skidcastings'l() by the longitudinally` arranged billets, Vare thoroughly A heated. As previously explained, the longi-Q tudinally disposed billets are turned tothe position shown in Figure Sby pulling them from the vcastings l0 .by hooks and vthey are turned down with the other billets once they have.v been placed in the position shown.

Y It willY be evident from the foregoing de-V scription of this invention that billet heating furnaces made inj accordance therewith are especially adapted for the heating of round l billets by continuous operation andr provide uniform heating .ofY the billets -passing 40 vious .thatthe furnace and pusher Amechanism maybe utilized for square billets or billets of other shapes than the round billets illustrated..y i'

i'Although one tion has-been 'herein Villustrated and deembodimentvofthe Vinven# through the furnace. It is,'[of course, ob-

of which comprise placing a plurality of bil-l lets in axial alinement and in spaced relation c on the furnace hearth, placing other billets` on said first named billets with their axes disposed at right angles to the axes of the said firstnamed billets, turning said first named billets at the discharge end. of saidffurnace into'parallelism with said second named billets, permitting all of saidbillets to come to the desired wo'rkingjheat and dischargingall of said billets'for processing, whereby all of said billets pass only konce through the furnace and the heat adsorbed by all lof said billets is utilizedj: f

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set myhand. 'i i JoHN w. oFFUTTL scribed, it will be obvious to those skilled in .l

f the art that various Vmodifications may be made in-the details of construction without v forth;A

" Iclaim':y Y

1.' In the method ofheating cylindrical billets, the steps of which comprise placing acplurality'oflbillets in axial alinement and in spaced relation on the furnace hearth, placing'l yother billets Vupon said first` named totheaxes of saidV first named billets, per# mittingf all Vof* said billet'sto come to Ythe de'- v Y sired working heatan'dthen discharging all Y of said billets for processing, whereby the heat absorbed by saidvrstnamed billets is utilizedf departing from' theprinciples herein 'set izqV l Y f billets with-their aXes disposed at right angles 

